ooh baby, let's stay together.

day 2 of puppet tour USA and we are in tulsa, OK.



on sunday, armed with a full ice chest and a tightly packed car, we said goodbye to nashville and made our way to the best western of forrest city, AR, which provided fabulous accommodations, including a pool!
the following morning we found ourselves at stewart elementary school, where matt puppeted the faces off of some summer schoolers.






with an hour to kill before the show at the public library, we headed to downtown forrest city to paint it red. forrest city seems to be cut from the fabric of the formerly hopping train stop. it's clear that after the construction of highways and interstates etc., forrest city opted for the more abandoned, dilapidated building motif. witness below: a traffic light leans. a trashed roof sits on a truck?

so what do you visit when you're in forrest city and you have a free hour? we looked up things to do there, and 14 out of 15 of the recommended attractions were churches. the 15th was the public library, which essentially means that the puppet show was the sole thing to see in forrest city that day. fortunately for us, we did not overlook the hidden gem that is the st. francis county museum, which features outhouses, old photos, and the very examining table upon which the rev. al green was born (pictured below).












still, forrest city is filled with nice people, like the morris family. these 3 brothers came in sizes big, middle, and small and were a throwback to the era when children were born simply to be workers and nothing else. after a show at the forrest city public library, they milled about politely until we realized they were intent on helping us break down. they carried all of our equipment out to the car, and we were gone in nearly 20 minutes.

then it was on to fayetteville to meet up with margot, matt's friend from college, and her boyfriend jordan. after two days of sandwiches, it was a treat to eat a warm homecooked meal. shishkabobs for all, followed by desert on the veranda and the story of jordan's horrible birthday.


more pictures to come as we return to fayetteville tomorrow, after knocking out the four shows in tulsa.

pre-game ceremonies

t minus one day until we leave for the tour, and kevin is in town for a wedding! of course we had to show him all of our favorite parts of nashville! we started with popsicles at las paletas, and then it was on to katy k's ranch dressing, to try on fabulous vintage western shirts. kevin has seen the actual parthenon in greece, so i'm sure the life-sized replica at centennial park didn't quite compare. still, we made our way there for some hacky sack and some time in the grass.




here are some action shots of the boys in mid-hack, and me in the grass.













after the shenanigans at the park, we prepared ourselves for some true tomfoolery. you may be aware that true tomfoolery requires clean teeth.

that's right. it's the east nashville tradition we all know and love: amateur wrestling at the stadium inn. the show was rife with speedos, fake punches, and the never-ending struggle between good and evil. my personal favorite involved the match that began with trash talk and an out-of-ring dance off between two wrestlers. but who can forget the lumberjack match between damien and lt? or what about the time that 6 wrestlers tried desperately to jump into the ring and take the belt only to be DENIED by manslaughter. glance here at the documentation, and be amazed.

the tag team match with "psycho medic" and some other guys i can't remember.


















kevin and matt rapt with interest.

for days and weeks i made the parting call...

t minus 5 days until we leave for the tour and most of the pre-tour checklist is complete. yesterday i grabbed an AC car converter at best buy so that we can use the laptop on the road without draining the battery. last thing on the list involves buying batteries for the camera and making sure the whole photo-blogging process actually works.

last night offered a perfect opportunity to test the camera. we attended the nashville regional air guitar championships, and at the last minute they asked audience members to volunteer as wildcard competitors. matt did so, and with the stage name freddie more-curry, he rocked the air as if it were the most bangin' guitar you've ever seen. his performance of "rock you like a hurricane" was rife with classic moves, guitar-smashing, and even the ripping of his shirt at the very end. alas, not knowing we'd need a camera, i'd left it at home, batteryless, and so now we have no pictures to upload. regrets...